A Saudi Leadership Adrift

Monarchy Reacts Slowly
To a Dangerously Changing Society

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Decision-making paralysis has hit Saudi Arabia -- the Middle East's most important oil state -- just as it needs leadership to face its worst domestic crisis in decades.

At the end of one day this month, as the country reeled from repeated terrorist strikes against Westerners, Saudi state television led its evening news with a report of a telegram from King Fahd bin Abd al-Aziz -- 83 years old and incapacitated...